Why I Bought an MP3 Player, and Why You Should Too!!

(After rereading this I realized I sound like an ad THIS IS NOT AN AD!!!)

I've been an avid Spotify user for the past 3-4 years, and today is my final day with a subscription. For one, Spotify is a terrible company; (though I'm sure you know this already) they barely pay artists, they prioritize money over user experience, and the CEO recently spent over 700 million on war drones. That was my last straw with the company, even after they raised subscription prices on me (which 10.99 was ridiculous already..now 11.99??). Plus their shuffle is ass. 

I was talking with my boyfriend recently and he actually suggested the MP3 player idea, a one-time purchase to listen to your favorite artists with zero ads or interruptions! Not to mention, there's no need to connect it to Wifi since the tracks are all downloaded. So, we each bought one, and it's been good so far! The one downside though has been transferring the tracks. We went through a lot of trial and error, but found a few Spotify playlist rippers that will download both the song and all its metadata (album cover and name, song name, artist name) at the highest quality. This can be really tedious, but it's much better to do it that way than manually adding metadata. Also, if you do plan to buy one, make sure it has bluetooth. I was trying mine out the other day, and it feels and sounds the exact same as using Spotify. 

The most important part about this is the money!! I spent about $35 on mine, and while that might seem a little pricey, it's worth the same as 3 months of a Spotify (or other) subscription. Think about how much money you could save, or instead, use to support the artists directly. Or if you're suffering from the school phone ban, bring one of these instead ;D. 

One final thing I'd like to add is that it could be harder to find newer artists without Spotify, that was probably the one thing I liked about the app. The 'listeners also like' tab at the bottom of an artist page has helped me find so many bands that I love now. Instead, I've resorted to using youtube. I haven't actually tried looking for artists there yet T.T but you can easily transfer Spotify playlists into youtube music and listen to/discover albums directly from there. I've just decided to use youtube when discovering new bands because I have an adblocker on my computer muahahahaha.

Ty for reading!! If you have the time, I'd strongly rec to buy one for yourself!